The factors impacting sepsis recognition in older adults in non-clinical environments – a scoping review

As life expectancy continues to increase in developed countries, the incidence of sepsis is likely to increase. Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection, which may lead to organ failure and death. In 2017, an estimated 49 million incidences of sepsis globally resulted in an estimated 11 million sepsis-related deaths (Rudd et al., 2020). Approximately 7.7 million deaths occurred among adults over the age of 20 years, of which an estimated 60 per cent (4.6 million deaths) occurred in adults over the age of 75 years (Rudd et al., 2020). In older adults over age 75 years, poorer health outcomes from sepsis result from multiple co-morbidities, chronic disease, and frailty. These poor health outcomes result in impaired quality of life, impacting health and social care costs. Ageism, stigma and stereotyping in this population are additional challenges to the physiological challenge of recognising, responding to, and treating sepsis in the older population. There remains an important stigma and stereotyping in this population that creates inequity in care, predisposing them to poorer outcomes.